A Storm of Swords

Rating:
Summary: A clash of kings
Review: I think it it the best book about monsters , kings, and knights. Its close up to the hobbit and i think it should be made in a movie!

Rating:
Summary: I can see both points of view (but the book is still great!)
Review: Interesting reviews by the readers! .... I can see both points of view, if you like clean, traditional fantasy this is not for you. And, I can see some folks seeing it as dragging on forever without much resolution. Certainly if you read fantasy for the cool spells and huge magics, this isn't for you.

If, however, you enjoy characters who will surprise you and a wildly complicated plot, then this is your series. Particularly noteworthy in the third book is the development of characters who have been on the perifery to this point. Especially Jaime Lannister, Brienne of Tarth, and Sandor Clegane each of whom plays a much larger role than in previous volumes.

While I would agree that portions of A Storm of Swords dragged on a bit too much, the overall pace was great and the surprises kept on coming. ....

Rating:
Summary: One History too much!
Review: The whole thing is pretty good idea for....PC game. I dare say the game will be great. About the script? Well.. It is more like having ... with you average girlfriend. Once a date is o.k, once a working-week is not so bad, but once a day? And we are talking history-flavoured fantasy here. Mr.Martin is a greatest in that field. His first book was like Revelation-comes-true. But over the third one, there is so many identic historical data that some true believers ought to demand a footnotes! After all there is nothing wrong about getting lost in his ever-lasting descriptive scenes a-la Leo Tolstoy. Real pitty this is not the game to disable features at wish! History is beyond esteem once per storyline, quite digestible once per chapter, but once-per-page? ONE HISTORY TOO MUCH!

Rating:
Summary: Good Guys Die, too (often)
Review: Martin is at times both a joy and a curse to read. His compelling novels bring you back for more, however he has a bad habit of killing off lead characters faster than the People's Republic of China knocks off political dissidents. This is the 3rd of 6 scheduled books, and at one insidious point, when several of my favorite (good guy) lead characters are suddenly murdered, I was disconsolate and almost disgustedly threw the book away. It did take me several days before I got over my disappointment and remorse to pick up the book to finish it. Martin does work hard to rebuild different characters to cheer for; however, I hope Martin refrains from such skullduggery in the future, as I doubt I will be as forgiving the next time.

Rating:
Summary: An Exceptional Book
Review: This book is a vacuum of imagination which sucks you in. Once you pick it up it is impossible to put it down. An incredible read!

Rating:
Summary: AMAZING
Review: These books are by far the best fantasy series i've ever read. I agree with some other readers who love the realistic nature of these books. I can't get enough of them. I love all the characters, good and bad. Mr. Martin is great at characterization because the characters aren't always perfect and they do the unexpected, which i love. My favorite characters are Jon, Arya, Tyrion, and even Sandor Clegane. People are always telling me "Tolkien is the best" and i agreee tha he is important to the genre, i just don't agree that he is the best. I thought those books were relatively boring and everything was always unexplained. I sure didn't love the characters in the Lord of Rings either. I love them all in these books. And these books are very exciting. I also love the lack of magic in these books. It shows how good of a story it is when it can be exciting and interesting without a lot of hocus pocus, where the characters face real hardships like the cold, and hunger. No one can just snap there fingers and start a fire in this story. No one can go trough a magical portal to a place a thousand miles away, they have to walk or ride horses. In this story, it's sword against sword and brains against brains. Man versus himself, nature, man, it's all here. one word describes these books. Amazing. Do yourself a favor and buy these books. I assure you, you definately won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Greatness continues into the third book
Review: Song of Ice and Fire is the best of the three major male-written fantasy epics out there, head and shoulders above the Wheel of Time and The Sword of Truth. The political intrigue continues, the plotting, the heavy, rich prose, iced by Martin's willingness to off major characters in a heartbeat without looking back. I highly recommend this to anyone who has a standard of literary content in their fantasy.

Rating:
Summary: Waiting for Number4!
Review: I NEVER pay full price for a hardcover book - but I absolutely could not wait for this book to come out in paperback. I finished the 900+ pages in about 5 days and am itching for number 4 to be published.

Martins ability to pull the reader into a different world is amazing. The reader KNOWS each character and empathizes with the good and the bad. But the thing that makes this book truly stand out is Martin's willingness to take risks and to explore the unexpected. Time and time again I literally laid the book aside - completely stunned by the turn of events the book had just taken. Major characters don't always live - let alone act as you would expect.

If there is anything 'bad' to say it would be:

1.) Some of the story lines are getting too long (Arya's quest to get home).

2.) I'm beggining to think that Martin may rely too much on the surprise and unexpected - I will be bitterly disapointed if good does not conquer evil eventually.

Rating:
Summary: If you read this book, you'll never read Jordan again....
Review: After finishing The Wheel of Time series, I went searching on the Internet for another fantasy/sci-fi series, and came across A Song of Ice and Fire.

Simply put, "A Song of Ice and Fire" is the best fantasy series I've ever read. When I purchased the first book, I was leery of more Jordan-clone books. However, this series couldn't be more different than Jordan's work and still remain in the realm of fantasy.

Of course, there are a few common elements between Jordan and Martin, but using the word "fantasy" to describe Martin's work is inaccurate. Martin writes reality. If you're looking for a series where the characters are always perfect, where the protagonists always win at sometimes ridiculous odds, and most importantly where you always have a "good feeling" at the end of each book, type "The Dragon Reborn" in that search box above. Martin's books are real. In the real medieval world, people killed each other sometimes for no reason at all, unexpected events could and did occur, there were no clear good guys, and the noblest people didn't always win. In The Wheel of Time, one major protagonist dies in the entire series. In just the third book of A Song of Ice and Fire alone, at least three are killed ("Or were they actually killed?", you ask yourself), some of whom even serve as Martin's points of view!

Of course, I couldn't miss the reviews that were posted on the page for "A Game of Thrones" bashing Martin's work for various reasons. I became leery when I read those reviews hinting at excessive profanity and violence. Whoever wrote such a thing should be thrown into a "black cell" in King's Landing - there is nothing excessive about the violent scenes in A Song of Ice and Fire. I did not come across one instance where violence, profanity, or sexual content was used in an inapproriate manner, nor do these themes dominate the book. When Martin is trying to show how cruel some characters can be, he does so appropriately, but not excessively. He also omits extreme language and violence that would only degrade his purpose. If you still think that these elements could have been omitted completely, think of how this novel would go over if Tyrion yelled, "Oh, darn. That knight almost shashed my head off. My goodness, I could have been injured."

Others criticize Martin's lack of magic in the series. One reviewer commented that magic hardly appears overtly at all in this series. I say "overtly" because there are many instances where a magical event occurs and the reader is informed of it secondhand. I was fully content with Martin's magicless world for the first few hundred pages of the series, and then I heard the first mention of the Lord of Light. I was ready to curse Martin for ruining such a realistic, well-thought-out realm by including magic. As it turns out, however, magic is there in the background and adds to the story, while not overpowering everything like it does in The Wheel of Time. The lack of magic keeps the reader interested when something magical occurs, while the opposite occurs in The Wheel of Time: I found myself skipping Mat's chapters. It was almost as if he was unimportant because he could not wield the Power like most of the other characters in that book.

Finally, both Martin's and Jordan's novels look to turn into an epic series when they are complete. However, while Jordan extends his novels pointlessly because he's not sure what to write, Martin extends his novels because he is exactly sure what to write - he has so many plot twists and important information to include that it couldn't be contained in a thinner book.

In conclusion, if you're struggling to finish the last few drawn-out installments of The Wheel of Time, then give it up and read A Song of Ice and Fire. If you're tired of the fluff that's included in many series today to perpetuate them for eternity so the author can make more money, then read A Song of Ice and Fire. But if you're new to the genre, then avoid A Song of Ice and Fire at all costs, because when you've experienced the best, there's nowhere to go but down.

Rating:
Summary: Another Excellent Chapter in Great Series
Review: A Song of Ice and Fire is, hands down, the BEST current fantasy series. The plot is intricate, gripping, and full of surprises. This isn't fine literature, but it is a first class story. One never gets the sense that the plot is out of control, and Martin is a competent auther who writes natural feeling dialog. I can't wait for the next book!!